Adding Words to First Draft

Overview

The InfraWare First Draft Dictionary is essentially the list of words that the First Draft Dictation Recognition service knows how to recognize.  It is separate from the spell check dictionary, and it differs from a classic dictionary in that it's primary purpose is a list of pronunciations for words rather than a list of definitions. Each word that comes out of speech recognition must be in the First Draft Dictionary or it can't be recognized.  On the other hand, each word can have multiple pronunciations. When First Draft listens to an Author say something, it checks this list to identify matching pronunciations for the purpose of selecting potential word matches.

The First Draft dictionary contains hundreds of thousands of words which covers almost everything an Author might say in a report. In rare circumstances (such as a new medication, disease name, etc.) an Author may use a word that is not contained in the First Draft dictionary. When this happens there is no way First Draft can produce correct speech recognition results for that word until it is added to the Dictionary.

The Dictionary Explorer gives Administrators of the Professional and Expert Editions of First Draft the ability to lookup which words are in the InfraWare dictionary and, if they find a gap, to suggest an addition. You can get to the explorer by navigating to the tuning page under the First Draft tab, then clicking on the “Open” link to the right of Dictionary Explorer in the Professional Settings box.

That will load the Dictionary Explorer window itself where you can lookup words and suggest new ones when not found:

If you look up a word that is not in the dictionary you will be provided with a screen to submit that word along with details.  Please include a job number and the approximate location of the word in the audio file so it can be referenced for pronunciation.  When all details are added click on Submit Suggestion.